Quikr, which operates five verticals, spread across, real estate, automobiles, education, jobs and services and good sectors, and competes with Naspers-owned OLX, claims to have 30 million monthly unique visitors.

NEW DELHI: Online classifieds company Quikr has raised Rs 55 crore in venture debt financing from InnoVen Capital, the Temasek-backed specialty financing firm announced on Thursday.

Bengaluru-headquartered Quikr, which is valued at over $1 billion, will use the proceeds from the debt funding round to scale its businesses across its multiple verticals, an official statement said.

“The company (Quikr) has showcased strong momentum, with improving unit economics and is positioned well to harness the benefits of scale and large customer base,” Ashish Sharma, chief executive of InnoVen Capital India said in the company-issued press release.

Quikr, which operates five verticals, spread across, real estate, automobiles, education, jobs and services and good sectors, and competes with Naspers-owned OLX, claims to have 30 million monthly unique visitors.

“With 95% revenue growth in FY18 and continued momentum in the first two quarters of FY19, each of our verticals are strengthening by the day,” Rahul Tewari, chief financial officer of Quikr, said. “As a business, we continuously look to optimise our capital structure and saw a very good fit in venture debt to support growth of our transaction businesses.

InnoVen Capital, one of the largest and oldest venture debt providers in India, has backed some of the country’s most richly valued startups, a list that includes, hospitality major OYO, food delivery platform Swiggy and ed-tech venture Byju’s, all of which are valued at over $1 billion.

It has, till date, provided over 165 loans to over 130 companies, according to the press statement.

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Quikr, which has raised about $350 million in equity financing, counts some of the world’s largest financial and strategic investors amongst its backers, a list that includes, Tiger Global Management, AB Kinnevik, Warburg Pincus, Matrix Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, eBay and Nokia Growth Partners.

The Bengaluru-based firm, which started operations in 2008 as a pure-play classifieds model, deriving revenues from an ad-based listings model, has moved to a full-stack transaction-led business over the past two years.

Quikr India reported consolidated operational revenue of Rs 173.49 crore in fiscal 2018, almost double what it reported - Rs 88.67 crore - in financial year 2016-17, as per financial documents filed with the Registrar of Companies.

Loss for FY 2017-18 fell 28% to Rs 233 crore from Rs 324 crore last year. In fact, three of the firm’s five verticals including jobs, auto and real estate have turned cash flow positive, it claims.